Unsworth Sugden Group

The Lyng, a new homes development from client Barratt West Midlands was officially opened to the public by West Bromwich Albion legends, Tony ‘Bomber’ Brown and Brendon Batson MBE.  It was a superb event, well managed by the Unsworth Sugden PR team and extremely well attended by local homebuyers - more than 100 came to visit over the weekend.  Many interested parties also turned up in the Baggies shirts and got the chance to have their photo taken with their idols.  Thanks to Toby Savage for the photos.

Director of PR Hannah with Brendon and Bomber

The phrase ‘Charity Tuesday’ isn’t solely confined to Twitter today after work by the Unsworth Sugden PR team saw coverage in this morning’s Leicester Mercury for client Westleigh Developments. This comes after its commercial division welcomed the regional office of a leading national charity to its LE3 office park in Leicester Forest East.

Tuesdays on the social networking and micro blogging website appear to have been designated as the chosen day of the week for charities and good causes to raise awareness and tell the world both what they do and when they do it, using the hashtag #charitytuesday.

So it seems quite apt that we have received coverage on a Tuesday for our press release about Alzheimer’s Society relocating its office for Leicester City, Leicestershire and Rutland from Humberstone Gate in the city centre to new premises at the development, close to junction 21a of the M1, which provides it with more space and the opportunity for future growth.

We spoke to representatives from the charity, Westleigh and property agents Innes England to gauge their opinions on the move and the local commercial property market before also organising photography and liaising with the paper. The end result was this great piece in today’s Business supplement.

(from left to right) Matt Moore of Westleigh, Sally Grundy of Alzheimer’s Society and Chris Page from Innes England at LE3

Don’t forget, The Lyng - a major regeneration project by client Barratt West Midlands - will officially kick off this weekend (Saturday 16th April), with the help of West Bromwich Albion legends Tony Bomber Brown and Brendon Batson.  For details contact 0121 585 5605 or visit www.thelyngalive.co.uk.

I’m Charlie Thacker, I’m 15 and I have done my two weeks work experience here at Unsworth Sugden and it has been great. I have learnt a lot and I will take this experience with me and make the most of it.

Over the two weeks most of my time has been spent in the studio with Matt and Steve. I’d like to thank them for all their help and I’m sure that they really enjoyed having their picture taken for my newsletter. For my newsletter I had to go round and interview most people about their area of expertise so I got to know some really nice people along the way. For one day I helped out downstairs in recruitment advertising and I really enjoyed that too.

The last two weeks have been a fantastic experience and I’d like to say thank you to everyone at Unsworth Sugden for giving me this opportunity.

Thank you.

Charlie hard at work on the newsletter

Both client Schlüter-Systems and the PR team are celebrating after the Schlüter Online Academy won the Best Innovation category at The Tile Association (TTA) Awards 2011 on Saturday!

The web-based training facility is the first of its kind in the tiling industry and despite being just a few months old was named as winner at a lavish awards ceremony in Birmingham at the weekend (2nd April).

As previously revealed on our blog, this comes after the PR team liaised closely with the client to create a detailed, informative and smart award entry.

The Schlüter Online Academy is a complete online learning system, providing 24 hour access to a wealth of product and continuing professional development (CPD) courses, aimed at building the knowledge and confidence of people throughout the industry. It works alongside Schlüter’s existing detailed training programmes which keep installers, distributors, architects, retailers, stockists, tiling lecturers at college and trainers at independent training centres up to date with the latest trends and technology.

To sign up for the Schlüter Online Academy, please visit www.elearningatschluter.co.uk and click on Register.

Both the client and PR team are celebrating!

Tony in 1978, picture thanks to West Bromwhich archivist Laurie Rampling

The legend that is Tony ‘Bomber’ Brown will be opening a development of brand new homes for client Barratt West Midlands on Saturday 16th April.  At 10.30am the former West Bromwich Albion player will be attending The Lyng, a new regeneration project from Barratt which is set to change the face of West Bromwich.  Tony, who will be joined by another Baggies legend, Brendon Batson MBE will be cutting a navy and white ribbon into the new show homes and be available for autograph signings and photographs.  Anyone interested in going to the event should call 0121 585 5606 for details or go to The Lyng marketing suite on Lyttleton Street on the day.

50 people from Birmingham people have found new jobs at a Shard End development.

Client Barratt West Midlands has announced that 50 local people have found jobs in the last five months at its new development in Shard End.

The Crescent, a £27m project to build nearly 200 homes, is now the place of work for 50 labourers, tradesmen and sub-contractors – as well as two apprentices. Many of the people employed live within five miles of the site.

Since the scheme began last November more than £2.2 million worth of contracts have been given to local suppliers, operating within five miles of the site, including electrical contractors, ground workers, bricklayers and security companies.

As well as new homes the development will provide a new vicarage for All Saints Church, a new library and 14,000 sq ft of retail units including a Co-op, bookmakers, post office, chip shop and a bakery.  A number of the retailers operate from the area already and are being relocated in brand new premises as a result of the development.

In total 124 one-, two- and three-bedroom houses will be available for private sale along with 67 affordable homes.

Adrian Farr, Managing Director for Halesowen-based Barratt said that the development is a classic example of how new construction projects can quickly employ significant numbers of people and benefit the local economy.

“From the start the Shard End scheme has been about more than just fulfilling housing needs and is one of a number of projects we are working on in the region that have local people at its heart.

“We have worked for a number of years with our partners here in Shard End to devise a scheme that would benefit the whole community and it is pleasing to see that in developing this site we are also able to aid both physical and social regeneration.”

Details of one of the apprentices and the local labourer are:

Alex Lennon

Carpentry apprentice

Age 16

Lives in Kings Heath

Studying NVQ in carpentry at South Birmingham College

Alex said, “Being an apprentice is fantastic; I like being outdoors and am learning a trade which I enjoy.  I had to take test to get this position so I feel really lucky to be working here. 

“I knew I wanted a real job and to study at the same time and being able to do this with Barratt is ideal.  In the future I’d like to get into construction management and hopefully this apprenticeship will put me in good stead to achieving that one day.”

Chris Adams

Site labourer

Age 33

Lives in Shard End

Found position through Job Centre, was previously unemployed for six months

Chris Adams (L) and Alex Lennon (R)